Battery cameras and continuous recording.
Battery cameras are the easiest cameras to install and the hardest to record properly. The reason is not a software limitation — it is how they have to work to get months out of a battery.
A battery camera cannot stream continuously; doing so would flatten it in hours. Instead it sleeps, wakes on its own motion sensor, records a short clip, and goes back to sleep. That is what makes months of battery life possible.
Continuous recording software expects a stream that is always there. A camera that is asleep has nothing to give it, and no setting on either side changes that trade-off.
- Gaps by designYou get what the camera chose to record, not a continuous archive.
- The start is often missedWaking takes a moment, so the first second or two of an event is frequently not there.
- Often no ONVIF at allMany battery models expose no ONVIF or RTSP, so third-party software cannot reach them even while awake.
- Plate and QR reading are unrealisticBoth want a steady stream of a lane or a doorway, which is the opposite of how these cameras behave.
Somewhere with no power and no cable: a remote shed, a gate at the end of a track, a rental where you cannot drill. As a motion-alerting camera reporting to its own app, a battery camera does a job nothing else does as easily. Just do not plan an archive around it.
Mains power is the dividing line. A mains-powered Wi-Fi camera can stream continuously and many support ONVIF — that is often the easy upgrade where cable is impossible. Where you can run a cable, PoE is the right answer: one cable, no batteries, and a stream that is always there.
Quick answers.
Can VISEC record a battery camera at all?
Only if the camera exposes ONVIF or RTSP, and only while it is awake. You will get clips with gaps rather than a continuous recording.
Is that a limitation of the software?
No. It is how the camera has to behave to make the battery last. Any recording software faces the same thing.
Which battery cameras support ONVIF?
Few do, and it varies by model even within a brand. Check the specification for ONVIF or RTSP before buying if PC recording matters.
What is the cheapest camera that records properly?
A mains-powered ONVIF camera. If you can get a network cable to it, PoE removes the power question entirely.
Find out on one camera, free.
The free license is the complete program — recording, alerts, plate recognition, QR reading and access control. It does not expire.